Stigoi or not?
by caloramoena
Summary: Rose isn't only dhampir, no she seems to become something else and the red eyes are the least of her problems...


„Rose! Rose! Wake up!", Lissa's voice was loud, pulling me out of sleep.

"Wha…", rolling over, I promptly fell out of bed.

Crawling up again, I let myself fall onto my back.

"What is it, Liss?", I asked not too friendly, a little grumpy for being awake.

"You changed again…", she whispered, a fearful note underlining her words. "The air was so cold all of a sudden and you didn't stop turning around, as if in pain, but when I came closer, you hissed at me and… and…the claws…and…", her voice had become panicked as she kept on rambling. With a movement of my hand, I stopped her. Rubbing my eyes I cursed under my breath as I stood up to look into the bathroom mirror.

Red. My eyes were red… I let out another curse.

To be true they weren't like strigoi eyes, no, those were red-rimmed, but shooting another glance at my reflection, I could only think this was worse. All red, definitely not rimmed.

Touching my cheeks, I was horrified by how white my skin looked in contrast, only to realise that my nails had become long and pointy. Claws…great!

Shaking my head I went back into the bedroom, sitting down on the chair we normally put our clothes on, burying my face in my hands. Running my tongue over my teeth, I was surprised not to feel any fangs poking out.

"The distance between the appearances is getting shorter.", I said shakily, the words sour in my mouth, like bile or venom.

"We should go back to the Academy, shouldn't we?", Lissa spoke slowly, nearly sad.

I looked up at her, the terror of that thought letting her shake.

"No.", I finally answered. "Not if you don't want to."

Standing up, I tried to pull her into an embrace, but the moment I was in touching distance, she took a step back. Letting my arms fall back to my side, I just looked at her, turning around to sit back down on the chair.

"I would never hurt you.", I said while holding her glance.

"I know.", she breathed, but I could feel the lie through the bond.

The bond…the bond?

Staring down at my hands, they had returned to normal.

"I'm back.", I smiled weakly. "The bond is back."

Holding her gaze, I saw her relax again.

"Let's go back to sleep.", my voice was tired, near yawning as I slipped back under my covers. Lissa silently did the same and within seconds, we were both gone to the world.

I felt her fear through the bond, pulling me out of sleep. Groggily walking over to her, I softly shook her, calling out her name like a silent prayer.

"It's okay, it's over. You're not there anymore.", I repeated, stroking the hair out of her face.

"Andre!", she screamed as her eyes flew open, landing directly on my face as her fangs poked out. Taking in the colour of her skin, I knew that she wasn't well.

"You should have told me that you need to feed.", I sounded nearly accusing as I brushed my hair to the side, baring my neck.

"Rose, is it okay so short after…", but when she met my glance, she fell silent, sitting up to give me more space to sit down.

Pressing close to me, I could feel her fangs scratching over the vein as she bit down in one hard strike. Awaiting the bliss that normally followed the bite, I was surprised by the sudden pain that flooded my body at every pull, but I kept silent, feeling her need for blood slowly ebbing.

When she let go of me, I unhurriedly stood up, her worried glance resting on my body as I leaned against the window.

Oscar, the cat, jumped up, growling at me, before turning towards the glass to growl again. Pushing him from the windowsill, I glanced at the dark street. On the other side of the road, near a tree, a man was standing, so close, that he could have seen what we were doing just now. Trying to get a closer look, he seemed to have noticed that I discovered him, striding towards the tree to disappear in the shadows.

"Lissa.", my voice was firm. "We need to go."

I could feel her confusion through the bond, yet she obeyed without a question, following me down, to find our housemate Jeremy still sitting at the counter, reading one of his magazines.

"We need his car keys.", I quickly told Lissa, who only a few seconds later met me at the front door, the object dangling from her finger thanks to having used compulsion.

"He parked it four blocks away.", she whispered as I pulled her with me, the blood loss making me a bit dizzy, but not as much as usual.

Without turning around, I heard heavy steps behind us.

"Run!", I said all too loudly, hearing the steps behind us quicken too, yet they weren't as fast as ours, as if we were outrunning them.

"One block!", I repeated like a mantra, disoriented and heavily swaying.

A man came out of the street in front us, blocking our only escape route.

Pulling Lissa behind me, I fell into a defensive stance, hissing at the man I had seen across the street before.

"Leave us alone!", I screamed, my voice near a growl as my tongue brushed my fangs. Fangs… Fangs?

Looking at the strangers face, I knew that I had changed again. One of the guardians behind us, came into touching distance. Without even thinking about it, I flung him against the wall, clawing at his head as he shoved me away, the silver stake glowing in the moonlight before it buried itself between my rips.

Resisting the urge to throw up, I tasted blood in my mouth. With a kick, I sent him flying.

Turning towards the next attacker, I readied myself to jump, yet a hand lightly landed on my shoulder.

"Rose.", Lissa whispered my name as if in fear.

Turning around, I saw her close to that one man from before, his stake ready, her face pleading. The man seemed surprised at the stake poking out of my chest, his eyes puzzled, but before I could say anything, blood blooded out of my mouth as I went down to my knees, the whole world turning black.

"If not for the stake pointing out of her chest, I would have said that she was strigoi, but her body seems to sway in and out of that state.", Dr. Olendzki's voice was close. Opening my eyes, I saw her standing at the end of the bed I was chained onto. The infirmary hadn't changed in the two years we had been gone, yet the heavy metal restrictions seemed to be quite new, I for my part didn't remember ever seeing them.

Turning my head a bit, I let out a cough, two pairs of eves landing on my body. The man from before was standing just besides the doctor and I couldn't help the growl that escaped my lips.

"We haven't removed the stake yet, not wanting to damage anything important. The chains are merely for her security.", Dr. Olendzki continued, before addressing me. "Don't move sweetie. We still have a few tests to do before we can remove the stake."

"Why am I chained?", I growled.

"Security measure.", she answered quickly.

Taking a look at the shackles around my arms, I gave a quick pull, satisfied when they gave away with a crack. Rubbing my wrists, I was about to undo my legs, as the man was telling me to stop, a gun pointed at me. Meeting his eye, I undid them anyways sitting up slowly. Grabbing the stake with both hands, I carefully let it glide out of my flesh with a sickening sound, the doctor pale and stunned into silence. Within seconds the wound began to heal back together, disappearing in less than a second.

Turning towards the stranger, I tossed him the stake.

"And you are?", I asked, my voice icy.

Lowering the gun, as if he considered me no longer a danger, he answered in an accented voice, probably Russian: "Dimitri Belikov. Lissa's guardian and your mentor. That is if you're still sane."

His eyes measured me up and I could see the wonder as he took me in as a whole, yet he stayed on guard, ready for a fight if needed.

"Mentor?", the question was voiced with disbelief.

"It's me or suspension. What is it?", he raised one eyebrow, and damn I always wanted to be able to do that.

"I'm Rose Hathaway.", I said standing up. "Pleasure to meet you."


End file.
